HOW A BRUSH WITH TRAGEDY REINFORCED MY FAITH IN ENTREPRENEURS AND THE POWER OF CROWD FUNDING

Even though the summer season doesn't officially kick off for a few weeks, the warm weather has given many of us a chance to get a head start on enjoying a tried and true American pastime - the backyard pool party, and my family was no exception. Our 5-year old spent three afternoons in a row frolicking in pools, and she had the goggle marks around her eyes to prove it!  Our 18-month old experienced a pool for the first time in his life - and didn't stop giggling the whole time, except when he decided he needed to stick his face in the water and grab a quick sip.

In the midst of all this fun and excitement, some close friends of ours experienced what no parent ever should - the near-drowning of one of their kids.  Thankfully, the little one is super resilient (aren't they all?!) and going to be OK. It was definitely a wake up call for me on many levels, and I did the best I could to use the experience as an opportunity to talk to my 5-year old about the importance of water safety. I also found myself channeling the grief and anguish that I'm sure our friends experienced throughout the ordeal, which manifested itself in an all out sobbing episode as I held and hugged my kids that night.

Soon after I got my wits about me, my mind immediately turned to thinking about why there isn't any product or technology in the marketplace - at least none I had come across during all those late night web surfing sessions researching things I could get for my kids that would reduce or eliminate the risk of drowning - that could greatly help decrease the chances of what my friends went through.  My next thought was that I would use this event as motivation to solve this problem.  Within an hour I had sketched out what the basics of what the product would be.

Just as I was lining up my accounts with GoDaddy and LegalZoom to get this new venture started, I figured it wouldn't hurt if I did a quick web search to see if by some chance someone had already come up with a way to solve this problem.  Not surprisingly - and much to my wife's relief I'm sure - I came across almost the EXACT IDEA I had sketched out earlier on the crowd funding site IndieGoGo called The SEAL - a wearable swim monitoring and drowning detection system.

Any sad feeling I had about not being the one to come up with the idea first (add it to the already long list!) were quickly replaced by feelings of admiration and excitement mixed in with a bit of confusion.  The admiration came from discovering that an emergency physician/engineer/father turned entrepreneur  named Graham Snyder in North Carolina (yes, there are plenty of entrepreneurs outside LA, SF and NY!) had developed this product.  It's truly amazing to see the power of human creativity and entrepreneurship at work, and the fact that funding platforms like IndieGoGo exist that can help great ideas get to market.The excitement came from the fact that this was an active fund-raising campaign, which meant that I could get in on the ground floor as a contributor and (hopefully!) be one of the first to get my hands on the product.

My confusion came from the fact that, despite the amount of press that this product has gotten and the extent to which this product helps solve a HUGE concern for parents, it has only raised about 1/5 of the funds it needs for a successful campaign - and with only 14 days left in the campaign.  I have faith that the IndieGoGo community will rally around this product in the next few weeks, and I for one am going to do what little I can above and beyond this blog and my social media posts to encourage anyone and everyone to at least take a look at the campaign page and either contribute any amount they can or at least spread the word about this product to others.  As you'll hear in Graham's video,  drowning is the #1 cause of death in children under the age of 5, and for every child that drowns, 5 more require some kind of extensive medical care or are left with permanent neurological injuries.

I'm super excited to support Graham's vision and hopefully enough other folks will as well so that we can get great products like these out in the marketplace.

BIG COMPANY INNOVATION IS HARD . . . FOR GOOD REASONS

I've been thinking a lot about innovation recently for a number of different reasons.  Over the last several weeks I've had the good fortune of spending time at two of the more innovative companies of our time - IDEO and Zappos.  I also recently saw the news of the departure of the last digital executive at my former employer, who I helped bring on board as part of the company's then vision to bolster the ranks of innovative thinkers in and around games and technology.  These examples show how innovation is either very easy or very hard to foster and maintain.

First - a brief refresher on exactly what innovation means. According to our good friends Merriam-Webster (remember them?!), innovation is defined as "the introduction of something new."

As someone who lives and works in the SF Bay Area, it's very easy to drink from the cultural Kool-Aid and get caught up in the notion that innovation is as natural as breathing.  I guess it's why so many companies from around the world look in our direction when it comes to starting a business unit,  acquiring talent, opening an office, etc.  In addition to me having hung out the corporate shingle for GameStop back in 2011, the list of Fortune 500 companies with a meaningful presence in the area is pretty long - folks like Wal-Mart, Amazon, Samsung, Volkswagen to name just a few.  The common threads with all of these examples are: each point of presence houses people and groups focused primarily on innovation; and the level of investment made to support efforts around innovation are significant.

This then begs a question -- why doesn't every big company do the same thing?!

It's worth noting that I've been at my share of big companies as a senior thought leader.  In each case at a time when innovation was at the top of their priority list given that technology and other macro forces were threatening their incumbent business - whether that was video games on discs, subscription-based media or paper greeting cards.  And in each case, the company's intentions were pure, but at the end of the day they each ran into the same ceiling when it came to their level of commitment, whether that be time, money or resources.  It's important to note that each of these companies were publicly traded at the time (one has since gone private), so by definition the pressures of quarterly performance are inherently at odds with the long view associated with supporting innovation.

Beyond just these three examples, another common trait that stifles innovation at most big companies is self-preservation.  What I mean by that is any material effort, investment, resources and/or results put into or generated from efforts around innovation threaten the livelihood of the majority of existing employees and executives.  It's easy to imagine the kind of closed door discussions that take place at many a corporate HQ when they see or hear that significant dollars are being spent on risky initiatives that may or may not pay off anytime soon, and meanwhile they're not getting those dollars to help keep their business line afloat.  What usually follows is everything from passive acceptance to outright sabotage.

Oddly enough, these are all legitimate reasons for stifling the creation of "something new" - we may not agree with them, but until we've walked a mile in the shoes of folks who are either dealing with the pressures of running a public company or the even bigger pressures of having their jobs potentially made irrelevant if that "something new" actually succeeds, it's very hard to pass judgment.

Fortunately for all of us we have examples of companies (including the ones listed above) who show us that it is possible to be both big and innovative.

FACEBOOK GIFT CARDS - THE NEXT BIG THING IN GIFT GIVING?! AFRAID NOT - AT LEAST NOT YET

A few days ago, Facebook announced the launch of their own gift card program powered by the folks that brought you the ever-popular Discover Card (is that even still around?!).  The basic gist is that it's a  re-loadable and re-usable "mega card" that  you'll be able to use at a variety of retailers, and which will eventually replace all those gift cards that you buy, get or likely have lost somewhere in your house. Oh yeah, and you'll be able to manage any and all gift cards you get - provided of course that the retailer is part of Facebook's program (more on that later).

So looking at this from a consumer's point of view, it sounds pretty good in theory - a single card that I can use to manage my balances across a number of retailers (they announced 4 pretty big ones as part or their launch). But it quickly starts to make less sense when you consider the realities of how customers - both on the giving and receiving end - interact with gift cards (having witnessed this behavior first hand during my time at GameStop) as well as the new friction that Facebook's card brings to the table.

First the customer realities. Gift cards are, for the most part, a present of last resort when you either have run out of time, ideas or energy to buy something specific or more creative. It's one step above stuffing cash in a envelope on the creative gifting scale - at least with gift cards you're telling the person "hey, I know enough about you to know what you like/where you like to shop but not enough to get you something specific that you'll likely end up returning or re-gifting so here's some free credit to use as you see fit." And more often than not these gift cards are given in denominations that are conducive to a single purchase as opposed to bankrolling your buying habits at a retailer for a month or two. So the reality is that most gift givers today prefer giving branded cards from a specific retailer.

For those folks that get these lovely gift cards, it seems like it would actually be more confusing to use Facebook's card when you go into a specific store as opposed to the store's card - because after all, how many of us will really be able to remember which cards we connected to our Facebook account?!  Plus, most folks use the card well before they'll take the time and effort to go online and connect the card.

Another point of friction is that, unlike the recently shelved Facebook Credits universal currency program, Facebook's gift card doesn't allow you the ability to load cash on it and spend it as you see fit across the spectrum of participating retailers.  This is one instance where taking a universal approach would actually work.

And oh yeah, let's not forget the retailers themselves - perhaps the most important part of the equation!  It goes without saying that Facebook's gift card program will only be as strong as its stable or  retail partners.  Without having almost every tier 1 retail chain signed up to participate, I don't see the gift card program being all that compelling to consumers.  In addition to risking brand dilution by having their branded cards replaced with a single "mega card," retailers are loathe to divvy up the revenue pie any more than they have to.  While it's not clear from what's been talked about publicly regarding Facebook's program, my assumption is that they are looking to take a piece of the action for every dollar spent through their card/program.  As it stands now, retailers have to share a portion of every dollar put on their own cards with: 1) the third party company that processes and manages their gift card program; and 2) in those cases where their cards are sold at locations other than their own, that 3rd party gets a cut as well.  Imagine now having to cut Facebook into the mix -- I don't see a ton of retailers standing in line so sign up for this program.

This isn't to say that Facebook's gift card program won't have some measure of success eventually - I just don't see it being a game changer anytime soon.

BACK IN THE BLOGOSPHERE . . . BITCHES!!

I know, I know -- what kind of a person abandons their blog for so long?! Me - that's who. I won't try to defend my excuses as good ones, but they'll have to do. Actually all of my excuses roll up into one fat one - LIFE!

Right around the time of my last post, my first kid was turning 1 and I was coming off my self-imposed hiatus and into a new gig leading the digital practice for GameStop.   From there it was a proverbial roller coaster of sorrow (losing my dad & best friend in August ’11 after almost a year of health issues), change (moving the family to Northern California in September ’11) and pure joy (the birth of our second kid in December ’11).

As amazing of a job as that has been for the last 3 ½ years, one of the unfortunate by-products of the gig was a “no public commentary without prior approval” mandate that made the act of blogging one of process and permission rather than harmless rants and observations.  Aren’t public companies fun?! 

Besides this small bump in the road, the GameStop gig was an amazing opportunity to yet again help a large incumbent leverage its place in the ecosystem (this time in gaming) to evolve its business to one that not only continues its market dominance in its core business but also boldly strikes out into new and adjacent businesses as a path to helping ensure future viability.  In my time there we accomplished quite a bit in a relatively short period of time, taking the companies revenues from sub-$100MM in ’09 to over $600MM in ’12.  I’m extremely proud of what we accomplished there and I look forward to the next chapter in my career, which will continue to include advising and mentoring early stage companies.

So now back to my blog.  The cool thing about reading through your old posts is that you can reflect back on how right on or full of s**t you were about stuff - and I gotta say the shovel is pretty light. One service that I blogged about (Groupon) has had quite an epic ride these last few years, two others (Tunezee and Timebridge) were acquired, another (Rixty) is still chugging along in the games sector and another (The Peek) is pretty much off the grid as predicted.

While this walk down memory lane was fun, I gotta say that the best part of getting this blog post up was surfing through all the stuff that came up when I went onto Google Images looking for an "I'm Back" image. This was the best (and safest) one I could come up with - thanks to whoever created it.

So now that I'm back on the grid I'll do my best post a bit more regularly. Looking forward to seeing what the future brings!

GROUPON - ONE PART DAILYCANDY, ONE PART URBANDADDY, TWO PARTS HAUTELOOK AND A DASH OF THE TIPPING POINT

I don't know about you, but it takes a lot these days for me to really be impressed by a new idea on the Web. So when I came across Groupon (via an ad on Facebook if you can believe it!) and saw what it was all about, I immediately became a fan -- and I'm pretty sure most of you who end up checking it out will feel the same way.

So why the corny title to explain what Groupon you ask? Good question for sure - - - it's partly because I'm cranking this blog post out at 3:3o in the f***in' morning (don't ask!), but really more so because it's the only way I could think of to capture the essence of what Groupon is all about in one sentence.

In a nutshell, Groupon is an online service that offers users a daily deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and (most importantly for their business) buy in a handful (14 to be exact) of major U.S. of cities. The geo-specific aspect of their site reminds me of products like DailyCandy or UrbanDaddy - hip and relevant insight into the cool stuff in your city. But unlike these informational-based businesses, Groupon goes a step further by offering users the ability to take advantage of limited time deals (called "flash sales" by the likes of HauteLook and others) being offered by various local vendors. And here's the interesting twist -- users can buy into these limited time offers but their order will only go through once enough other users have also bought the same offer within a certain pre-determined time period (usually 24 hours) -- hence the "Tipping Point" reference.

Take me for example -- in the last week I've already pulled the trigger on two Groupon offers - two one-hour massages at a local holistic spa for my wife for $54 (a 50% savings); and four 90 minute sessions -- which includes a 30-minute golf lesson and 1 hour use of the indoor golf course simulator -- at a place called Players Club Golf in Santa Monica for $30 each (a $320 value). In fact I'm looking at an offer now from Reeder's Barbershop - $20 for a $50 MVP haircut, which includes a haircut, head massage, hand massage, hot towel, nape shave, free beer or soda, your own private flat screen with DirecTV access and, oh yeah, your "barber" is actually an young, attractive woman. The only downside to this offer is that it's limited to 1 per customer - but technically you can buy 4 more as gifts for friends. SEE BELOW to find out how you can win a free haircut!!

I encourage all of you to give Groupon a try - and I'd be surprised if you weren't hooked on it within days like I am! If you do check it out, definitely post comments below letting us know what you think.

P.S. -- I have 2 Groupons for the barbershop offer to give away -- first two L.A. based guys (sorry ladies!) to correctly list the current CEO's of HauteLook and UrbanDaddy in the comments section below will win - good luck!

WEB START-UP TUNEZEE LOOKS TO MAKE MUSIC SEARCH AND DISCOVERY MORE EFFECTIVE

It's always exciting to see industry friends/colleagues reach the impressive milestone of product launch, and it's even more exciting when the product is something that actually has some legitimate potential. Such is the case with Tunezee, a music search and discovery engine co-founded by Ogi Todic, who I've had the pleasure of knowing for a few years now. I recently had the chance to touch base with Ogi and get some more details about Tunezee's current business as well as their future plans.

Q: In a nutshell, what is Tunezee?

Have you ever remembered a few lines from a song, but have no idea who sings it or what the name of the song is? Tunezee allows you to find that song/artist through search using lyrics or other descriptors, confirm the results via our SmartKlip service, browse full lyrics of the song, view videos and purchase music and related merchandise. The SmartKlip service is a short music clip which corresponds to the search phrase. It allows you to hear exactly the part of the song that you've remembered. This will help you find the song you have in mind much faster.

Q: How did the idea for Tunezee come about?

It was a combination of a couple of things. I was working on a project that involved digital audio processing for a video application. In talking to my friend (now co-founder) we thought the technology could power a music search service that would be more powerful than what is currently available on the market. Both of us had been in situations where we knew the line from a song but not who sang the song. We knew how bad the user experience was around music search, so we figured we could make it significantly better.

Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself and the folks behind Tunezee

Tunezee was started by myself and Tony DeFranceschi. Tony has a strong business background; he worked at McKinsey for a number of years where he consulted software, telecom and mobile device clients as well as held operating roles at two startups. I've held different technical roles at a couple of Silicon Valley companies that created some innovative technologies and services. Most recently, I have been running a software consulting business helping various startups as well as the Stanford Technology Ventures Program on building software systems. I'd also like to add that Tunezee would not be what it is without our stellar engineering team.

Q: What is your primary value proposition for both users and content owners (specifically music rights holders)?

We help users quickly find the music they are looking for, connect with music, share their findings with friends and acquire music via their preferred online store. The current user experience is fragmented in that users often have to go to multiple sources/websites to search for music, confirm the results, and then take action (for example, buy music or share findings with friends). We aim to streamline this process and to create a one-stop music search and discovery service.

We help content owners monetize their content more effectively. A user’s attention span is increasingly becoming shorter and shorter. If a user is exposed to a song (radio, concert, party, restaurant), but can’t easily find it and reconnect with it, the likelihood of that song being purchased diminishes significantly. That is why we created a simple and effective music search solution – Tunezee – which will help increase the sales of music and associated merchandise.

Q: What problem or absence in the marketplace does Tunezee solve?

Tunezee provides an effective search and discovery solution in the music space. Our goal is to fill a void in the music search space, which is currently addressed via a combination of standard search engines and cottage industry websites.

Q: How many songs do you currently have in the database, and what does the future growth of this database look like?

We have hundreds of thousands of songs (over a million if you count the same songs on different albums).

As for future plans, our goal is to provide a service where users can quickly find any song for which they are looking. This will require significant growth in the number of songs, as well as song and user metadata, which will enable a better search experience. There is still room to enhance user experience and provide users with the most relevant results when they are searching for music.

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Interestingly enough, within a few days of our Q&A session, the International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising published a report revealing that longer, higher quality free music samples engage more listeners and reduce the number of free riders. According to ScienceDaily.com, the report concludes that "an effective digital music free sample strategy should involve high-quality, long samples of the music being marketed, the researchers conclude. This makes it more likely that the consumer listening to a sample will buy the full product, whether that's a CD or a track download, rather than being a free-rider."

Data such as this bodes well for Tunezee -- now let's just keep our fingers crossed and hope that the music industry agrees!

BANKING THE UNBANKABLE -- COINSTAR EMPOWERS YOUNG GAMERS

Truth be told I've known about this initiative by Coinstar for a little while now, mainly through following one of the companies (Rixty) listed in the release, so I was thrilled to see this news hit the wires yesterday because it's a great example of a traditional brick-and-mortar based business finding creative ways to get in the new media world game.

The basic premise is that Coinstar is allowing consumers (read: pre-teen and teen gamers with no access to credit cards as a way of paying for their digital entertainment addiction - I mean, hobby) to turn in their coins in exchange for pre-paid spending cards for onling games, virtual worlds and social networks. Some of the other digital entertainment properties attached to this initiative include Aeria, Stardoll, WeeWorld, Adventure Quest Worlds and, perhaps most importantly, Facebook and MySpace. I'm sure that more companies in these spaces will soon follow suit and join the Coinstar consortium -- the question is, can mainstream media companies be far behind? Hulu pre-paid card anyone?!

Just when you thought that Sparkletts water bottle full of coins was never gonna see the light of day!!

NO BOOTSTRAPS . . . NO PROBLEM (MAYBE!)

In the spirit of covering topics that my readers are interested in, today's blog topic comes from a good friend and former colleague of mine (Ed) who wrote to me recently asking if I could write a "how-to" article of sorts about how to navigate the angel investor waters. In these challenging economic times, coupled with the complex landscape found in the venture and private equity worlds, angel investors occupy a very worthwhile niche within the start-up ecosystem -- typically offering a combination of funding (albeit generally at lower amounts) and hands-on assistance that the majority of bigger money shops can't or don't offer -- although as we've read recently a handful of them are starting to set up "seed bet" funds.

Like many of us, Ed has spent many years in the digital media space and along the way has put together some potentially viable business ideas/plans that he would love nothing more than to incubate them and see if there's any "there" there. The challenge is that Ed, again like many of us, falls outside the traditional demographic of "bootstrap entrepreneurs" - early to mid-20s, living either on campus or at their parents house and funding the development of a business idea through credit cards, family loans, etc.

While many in the investment community would argue that this is the only demographic worth funding, I couldn't disagree more (and yeah - I may be a bit partial since I'm a bit past my 20s!) since those of us who have "been around the block" can and do add tremendous domain expertise and business acumen to a venture. The challenge becomes that those of us who are a bit older actually have lives and obligations -- kids, mortgage, bills, charity work, friends . . . and as such, are not in a position to max out the credit cards to help fund a business idea. But just because you're not willing to take that risk doesn't mean that your idea isn't viable.

In my quest to get some answers and potential clarity, I decided to go directly to the source and pick the brain of a prominent angel investor and industry colleague of mine - Mark Sigal. In addition to being an eight-time entrepreneur (four-times as co-founder) and 'platform guy' with deep domain expertise in digital media, social networking, software as a service, systems management and embedded systems, Mark is an angel investor and also authors an industry blog called The Network Garden.

Mark's advice for folks like Ed who have potentially great ideas and are looking for some help from the angel investor community to help them make those ideas reality:

* Ideas are a dime a dozen, now more so than ever;
* Proof is what you pay for, and proof is achieved one of two ways. First, build something to a base minimal functional state that can show whether "the dogs will eat the dog food." Second, have SERIOUS pedigree such that you can prove that you've been there, done that before;
* If you lack the ability to code, persuade someone to code your idea for equity only in order to achieve that base functional state.

The harsh reality is that there are less active angels right now since everyone's net worth has been whacked 20--50%, meaning that former investment dollars are now going towards personal expenses (read: room and board, lifestyle spend and/or "weather the storm" spend). In the axis between fear and greed, fear (and by extension poverty) still have the upper hand. In Mark's humble opinion, without most or all of these bullet points addressed, then chances are you're shit out of luck save for taking the route of the 20-somethings.

While I'm sure this isn't exactly what Ed may have wanted to hear, it does seem to reflect the current realities that we're facing with the economy. But even in these challenging times, I do think that great ideas that achieve some level of visibility beyond just a Power Point and a corporate summary do get noticed -- after all, weren't we here once already after the bubble of Web 1.0?!

As always, comments are welcome -- ideally here on my blog as opposed to my Facebook page or Twitter feed - but I'll take them anywhere!

And please keep the topic ideas comin'.

SILICON VALLEY & L.A. -- A TALE OF TWO (START-UP) CITIES?

Last night the good people over at Dealmaker Media L.A. hosted the latest installment of their strategy & mixer series last night at the William Morris offices in Beverly Hills. The event centered around a panel discussion moderated by Rich Wolpert, Managing Director of The Mailroom Fund discussing the similarities and differences between the start up and investment communities in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles. The panel was a good mix of investors (both angel and institutional) and entrepreneurs -- Mike Jones, newly minted COO of MySpace and former CEO of Tsavo Media, Joey Carson, President & CEO of Hollywood Interactive Group, Jason Oberfest, SVP, Business Development at MySpace and Mark Suster, Partner at GRP Partners.

Here are some of my take-aways from the event:

* In general, L.A.-based start ups are more monetization oriented while Silicon Valley start ups tend to place more emphasis on product development and technology.

* Due in part to geographical differences between the two areas, the L.A. start up and venture scene is more disparate and, save for Santa Monica, has no real nerve center (a la Sand Hill Road up north). And as an extension of this reality, there is also a common perception that L.A. does not have the depth and breadth of technology talent that Silicon Valley has, although there are members of the L.A. community (including the L.A. CTO Forum) that are actively working to change this perception.

* Those working in the start up community in Silicon Valley are much more pre-occupied with the equity portion of compensation packages than those in L.A., with one theory being that so many of them know and/or have heard of many others in their position making millions of dollars off of their options - which in turn leads to something along the lines of a sense of entitlement.

The topic of this event was of particular interest to me because I've spent the greater part of the last few months traveling to and from Silicon Valley and L.A. meeting with countless start ups and venture capitalists in both cities - in large part to get a sense of the general business and investment climate in both areas as I try and figure out what I want to do when I grow up. The main difference that I've noticed so far is that Silicon Valley operates in a micro-climate "bubble" environment that almost doesn't care or pay attention to the macro conditions that exist in the world (in this case the horrid economy). Entrepreneurship, progress and innovation are embedded in the fabric of the Valley - and that fabric is extremely strong and resilient.

While that's not to say that some of that doesn't exist here in L.A., the reality is that much of the climate is driven by the entertainment & media industry. And that industry is very much aware of, and adversely impacted by, the current economic conditions, not to mention the ongoing struggles many media companies are still having with figuring out how they are going to thrive in this new digital media ecosystem. And that fear and trepidation can't help but trickle down to the start ups and investors in the area, especially those whose businesses and investments are based in and around content. And from what I've heard from my friends and colleagues on the East Coast, this same dynamic exists between New York and Boston -- so at least we're not alone!

The good news is that L.A., despite its geographical challenges and ties to the entertainment industry tides, has a ton of great people across the business spectrum -- entrepreneurs, technologists, monetization experts and investors, and the sentiment coming out of last night is that the gap between L.A. and Silicon Valley - real or perceived - is closing every day.

T.A.P. SERIES #3 - MAKING VIRTUAL SCHEDULING EASIER

We all know how painful it can be sometimes to try and schedule things with other folks via email - especially those outside your office and/or company for work-related things like meetings, conference calls, lunches, etc. If your experience is anything like mine, it take at least 3-4 back and forth emails to settle on a date and time that works -- and that's just when trying to schedule something with just one other person that's in the same vicinity or time zone. Multiply that by 2 for every additional person involved in the process and you get the picture.

I recently came across a company by the name of TimeBridge that offers a consumer-friendly (and more importantly, free!) meeting schedule product that is entirely web-based and allows you to not only integrate it with office-based calendars like Outlook but, more importantly, with home-based calendars like Google or iCal. There's also a business version, which I assume has some kind of price tag associated with it.

The process is pretty simple -- sign up for an account, create a meeting proposal - which includes selecting/suggesting days and times for the event, send it out to your intended recipients and wait for them to get back to you. Once everyone is on board the invite can be integrated into your calendaring system of choice (assuming it's one of the three mentioned above) and you're all set.

Feel free to send any and all feedback about the product once you've given it a try - I think you'll find it worthwhile.

TAKING A PEEK AT THE PEEK

I'm sure some of you have already seen this new mobile communication device called The Peek - but for those of you who haven't, let me be the first to give you my two cents about it . . . don't bother.

What is it you ask? Quite simply, it's a portable device that is 100% dedicated to emailing and texting. According to their CEO Amol Sarva, there are a ton of people out there who want a simple to use (it only takes a few minutes to set up) and affordable ($49.95 for the device and $19.95 a month with no contracts) device that allows them to stay in touch on the go - but without having the ability to actually call and talk to people.

Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty slick looking device - and I'm sure that there will be folks out there for whom this is a perfect fit. But I personally think that there are a number of factors working against it, including:

1. Device Fatigue -- as we continue to be bombarded with more and more choices when it comes to portable devices (cell phones, smart phones, digital cameras, laptops, netbooks, etc.), at the end of the day most people want to simplify their lives and pare down on the number of devices (and power cords) they use and have with them at all times. And more likely than not, these same people will be willing to pay a premium for the convenience of less devices.

2. Email Is Becoming Less and Less Relevant -- we can't deny that we're in an age of immediacy that is being driven, in large part, by the continuing proliferation and use of telephony and texting functions associated with pretty much all cell phones these days - not to mention the meteoric rise of social communication tools like Twitter and Facebook. As a result, email is being used more and more as a third or fourth option when it comes to communication. So when faced with the choice of having a device that allows you to talk and text (in addition to a handful of other bells and whistles), or one that lets you just text and email, chances are you'll choose the former.

3. Price -- while 20 bucks a month is definitely a good deal, the reality is that most people are still willing to pay a bit more for a portable device that fits the criteria mentioned in #2, in addition to having other utilitarian features such as a camera and Internet access (through which, by the way, you can also access and use email). And it's safe to assume that pricing on mobile phone services from the carriers will only continue to go down.

Long story short -- extremely slick looking device with a price point and service that may appeal to an extremely small group of consumers, but at the end of the day, less is more when it comes to devices.

T.A.P. SERIES, #2 -- INTERNET THROUGH THE T.V. - THE FUTURE IS NOW!

For better or worse, I've been a loyal user of Yahoo! for a lot of my basic web services - email, photos (through Flickr) and RSS feeds (through My Yahoo!). Some people say that it's almost as passee as having an AOL account, and while there are times in the past that I've agreed with those folks, I'm here to tell you that I haven't been prouder to be a Yahoo! user than I am right now. And the reason for that is their newly launched Connected TV initiative, which made quite a splash earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

As you'll quickly see, Connected TV is representative of the first real steps towards bringing a full Internet experience to a television set. Yahoo! is choosing to do this by integrating a now-common web product called "widgets" into the on-screen experience, all with just the touch of a button. Through the Yahoo! TV Widgets, users will be able to access an endless library of web services from not only Yahoo! but also from other services like Twitter, CBS, eBay, Netflix and the New York Times. For those of you interested, here is a video demo of the TV Widgets in action.

What I like about what Yahoo! is doing here is that they are creating a very simple and intuitive way to introduce the consumer public to the idea of having access to the Internet through a television using existing hardware -- basically the TV itself and the remote that comes with it. There are no additional set-top boxes to purchase, no keyboard to use and the user is in control of customizing the way the widgets are presented on the screen relative to the TV program that's on the screen.

The main drawback of the Yahoo! offering is that it's probably not something that you can add to your existing TV set. Having said that, there's no reason why your cable/satellite provider couldn't offer something similar through their service. My provider (Verizon FiOS) already has a widget offering in its menu, but it's pretty weak compared to what Yahoo! is offering, so hopefully they'll get their act together . . . and soon!

And for those of you that want a deeper dive on the subject of Internet on your TV and see what today's industry leaders are saying about the promise of tomorrow, a good place to start is this January New York Times article which covered the topic in the context of the CES show.

It really is a brave new world!

MEMO TO THE INDUSTRY . . . DO AWAY WITH ALL MOBILE URLS!!!!

There are very few things that exist in the digital media space that I would put in the category of being a pet peeve of mine -- but this is definitely at the top of my list, and my rant on this has been a long time in coming.

In all the years that I've observed and been involved in the mobile web (aka WAP for you industry aficionados), I have never understood why any company/brand/publisher/media company would use anything other than the traditional ".com" top-level domain their mobile web destination URL. As we've all seen, there have been a whole host of mobile-specific top-level domains and URLs that have been, and continue to be, employed and marketed to consumers with web-enabled mobile phones -- for example:

* www.-------.mobi (e.g., CNNMoney.mobi)
* m.---------.com -- (e.g., m.myspace.com)
* wap.------.com -- (e.g., wap.aol.com)

For those of us in the mobile space, I ask you -- isn't the ultimate goal here to educate the consumer public that the web is the web is the web -- regardless of whether you use a PC, a mobile phone, a game console or a TV to access it? Doesn't the mere presence of different URLs just add to the confusion rather than address and remedy it? I definitely think it does. And from a business perspective, I'd prefer to funnel all my web traffic, regardless of where it comes from, through one domain so that I can get credit for the audience and also better monetize them.

Sure the visual experience for the consumer will be different across these screens, but as true convergence continues to become a reality through increased proliferation of smartphones with a more robust web experience as well as the promise of Internet to the TV screen, those differences will continue to diminish. And in the meantime, let's all agree that the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid!) approach is probably the best one here. Just use your existing ".com" URL for your mobile web site -- and make sure to ask whoever is helping you develop it to make sure an put in that one line of code on your web server that automatically detects whether someone is trying to access your site from a mobile phone so that that the correct site is rendered. It's that simple!

So say YES to ".com" and NO to everything else -- who else is with me?!

T.A.P. SERIES, #1 -- THE ANSWER TO S***TY CELL RECEPTION IN YOUR HOUSE . . . MAYBE

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that pretty much all of us have, at one time or another, wanted to throw our cell phones out the window after having a call drop for the 100th time while talking on it in our homes. Well have no fear, a technology called femtocells (don't ask me where they came up with that name!) is coming to a neighborhood store near you -- hopefully sooner rather than later.

So what exactly are femtocells? In a nutshell, they're super small versions of cell towers (also known as "access point base stations") that are housed in a piece of hardware that looks like your standard home Internet modem. In some cases they will come pre-installed with an Internet modem -- mostly in those cases where you have a provider (e.g., AT&T, Verizon, etc.) who your cell phone and home Internet service. If that's not the case, then you'll likely need to get a sepate box -- either way these femtocells use existing high speed Internet connection in your home. From what I can tell, the current versions that are in development will be able to support 2-4 cell phones in one location, and they'll operate much like a home Wi-Fi environment in that you'll be able to "lock" your network and limit access so that you don't have folks camped outside your house poaching your signal.

As of last year, Sprint was the first carrier here in the U.S. to make the service (called "Airave") available nationwide -- for those of you interested you can see get more info on their web site here. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are apparently in the trial phase and should be rolling out their femtocell services sometime this year. And since I haven't tried these services yet, I can't really vouch for how well (or not!) they work.

So if you haven't already chucked that cell phone out your living room window, you now have even more reason than ever to hold on to it!

If you have any suggestions on topics to be covered as part of this T.A.P. series, drop me a line at chris@bravenewmediaworld.com.

TECH FOR THE AVERAGE PERSON (T.A.P.) -- A NEW, SEMI-REGULAR SERIES

I don't know about you, but for years now I've been one of those people that family and friends call up with questions about pretty much anything and everything having to do with technology -- I guess the thinking is that since I've been in businesses involving computers, the Internet and cell phones for a while now, I must know a little something about any or all of those things. And they're right - with an emphasis on the word "little!"

So it got me thinking that it may be useful every once in a while to write about a topic that, while it may be something that is on the minds of my family and friends (and by extension, maybe your family and friends), they haven't yet gotten around to asking me about it -- for now I'll call it the T.A.P. ("Tech for the Average Person") series. And unfortunately it's gonna be a bit more advanced than things like "how do I set my answering machine?" (sorry mom and dad. . .) or "what is this Facebook/LinkedIn thing all about?" (if you don't know already, don't bother) -- but not by much!

So if there's anything on your mind that you've been wondering about, feel free to drop me a line at chris@bravenewmediaworld.com and I'll see what helpful info I can come up with for you!

THE FACEBOOK DILEMMA - TO CHARGE OR NOT TO CHARGE? IT'S ALL IN THE STOOL

Over the last several months there's been a lot of chatter about this, both in the media/blogosphere as well as (more importantly!) within the Facebook community. Doing a quick search on Facebook for "Facebook charging" bring back 287 group results (many of which have few, if any, members) generally related to this topic. Two early articles include one from Farhad Manjoo at Slate and Mike Masnick from TechDirt.

Since it seems to be a slow brain day, I thought I'd revisit a somewhat old topic today, instead of coming up with a new one on my own, and give my two cents (after all - that's about all my opinion is worth these days!). I will admit right off the bat that my opinion is not 100% Facebook-user centric, but rather also looks at this also from the perspective of what makes sense from a business perspective. So you won't be seeing me join any of these groups anytime soon!

I've been fortunate enough to have worked at two companies -- Playboy and American Greetings -- that have demonstrated a certain measure of success with employing a multi-revenue stream model in their online businesses -- what I would call the "three-legged revenue stool" -- Advertising (banners, buttons, video ads, etc.); Access Fees (charging users a toll of some kind to access premium content and/or services) and E-Commerce (selling tangible products).

Based in part on my time spent at these companies, and also based in part on my feeling that diversification in one's portfolio -- whether it's your online business or your 401(k) -- is a good thing, I happen to be a fan of the multi-leg stool. It goes without saying that the more legs (within reason!) a stool has, the sturdier that stool will be. Too many online businesses of late have decided to put all their eggs in the single-leg stool model (advertising) and as a result, have been unable to develop a defensible/scalable business model for themselves.

By having multiple revenue streams, a business can manage these streams like levers, and throttle them up or down depending on factors like consumer behavior & feedback, market conditions, competitive landscape and effective ROI. These streams in turn act like a natural hedge, giving the company that much more to fall back on in case one of the legs of the stool starts to get a bit wobbly.

By all accounts, Facebook, for all its immense global popularity and usage is still not a profitable business and they're yet again looking to raise a ton of additional money (somewhere in the neighborhood of $1oo million) to help keep the lights on. Clearly the current models in place for generating revenue are not paying the bills, so as with any smart business, they should be (and likely are) looking at ways to generate enough cash to get to profitability and generate a respectible return for their investors -- after all, isn't that the basic goal of most companies?

It's safe to say that with around 200 million users worldwide and the distinction of being one of, if not the largest photo storage/sharing site on the Web, Facebook has evolved beyond simply a social network and into a social utility -- one that provides value to most, if not all, of its users. So why a valuable utility not charge its customers for some portion of its service? The questions then become -- what to charge for and how much? In terms of what to charge for, it could be anywhere from a flat fee for initial access to an advertising-free Facebook environment to tiered charges based on usage (consumer vs. commercial accounts, # of photos uploaded, # of friends in your friends list AKA address book, etc.).

For example, let's assume that Facebook charged a flat fee of $1 per month for consumer access to the service, and assuming that the majority of users (let's say 75% for the sake of argument) agreed to pay the toll, that would be a nice chunk of change for Facebook - $150 million dollars PER MONTH give or take. Of course nobody can predict what percentage of users would actually stop using Facebook and what effect an access fee ecosystem would have on new user sign ups, but if you're like me you wouldn't think twice about paying 12 bucks a year to service one of the most valuable social utilities ever invented. After all, we happily pay for other valuable services -- my roster includes the gym, Netflix, Flickr Pro -- that cost as much if not way more -- so why not Facebook?

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

BLACKBERRY APP WORLD STORE . . . A QUICK FIRST LOOK

Woke up this morning to find an email in my inbox (well, technically in my Spam folder -- good thing I check that once in a while) from Blackberry letting me know that their App World is open for business. Went ahead and downloaded it onto my Curve and gave it a test drive -- here are some initial observations and a snapshot of my user experience:

* The navigation is pretty straightforward but definitely highlights the inferiority of the track wheel based nav of the Blackberry versus the finger swipe nav of the iPhone. The home screen is mostly dedicated to a horizontal scrolling presentaton of "Featured" apps, of which there are 11 - and the first one is (big surprise!) the Facebook app. Below the scroll area are four icons that you can navigate to and click on -- Categories, Top Downloads, Search and My World.

* A couple of things that, at first blush, may be a little bit surprising if you believe that the vast majority of Blackberry users are "older" (30+) and use the device primarily, if not exclusively, for business reasons:

1. Of the 529 apps that available, over 40% (227 to be exact) are in the "Games" category. The category with the second most apps (90) is "Productivity & Utilities" -- now that's more like it!

2. The top paid download (#23 in a list of 25) is PhoneyFarts -- so much for the sophistication of Blackberry users!

* Tried to download a paid app (PhoneyFarts -- what else?!) so that I could check out their payment integration with PayPal. The log in and purchase part of the process was extremely pain-free, but as the transaction was finalizing I got an error message letting me know that there were problems completing the purchase because of the system's inability to "obtain a license key." Not sure what that means other than a lost opportunity to Blackberry to convert a paying customer. And oddly enough, I got an email from PayPal with the subject line "Receipt for Your Payment" - hmm, wonder whether they actually charged me!

* So it now keeps getting worse . . . the app store seems to have frozen my device. I'm in the My World section of the app where I'm staring at the icon of my failed app purchase, and I can't navigate away from it whatsoever. Looks like it's time to do the old pull out the battery thing -- UGH!

* Tried to download another paid app - this time got a different error message letting me know that they're having trouble conecting to the App World server - strike two!!

* Finally tried to download a free app (Vegas Pool Sharks Lite) - and as they say, third time is a charm! App downloaded with no issues and the full functionality is intact. I can only assume that my problems with the first two tries had to do with the fact that they were paid apps and had some issues reconciling with the PayPal authentication system.

VERDICT: Not the best customer experience out of the gate, but as with any newly launched product, there are hiccups and bugs that I'm sure will be addressed. As a longtime Blackberry user, I for one am glad to have access to a native app store so that I can finally move on from Brickbreaker!

BACK FROM A LONG HIATUS -- AND HOPEFULLY FOR GOOD!

I've been kicking myself for a while now about not getting back in the blogging saddle before now -- but life has a way of throwing a wrench in your plans!

And by "life" I mean the snowball effect that our current world economic state has caused. My most recent employer - a publicly traded, family owned, magazine-centric business (which some would consider three strikes right out of the gate) has been going through some challenging times for the better part of the last 12+ months, and recently informed its employees that it was taking some drastic measures in an effort to reduce expenses and "right the ship." Those measures included closing the posh NYC mid-town digs and centralization of its digital media operations to the company's HQ in Chicago (not exactly a digital media hotbed - but that's for another time!).

As a result of these moves, a decision was made that it was time for my employer and I to part ways -- an event which, to my surprise, got some press coverage - both on its own (http://tinyurl.com/dxlbrm) as well as part of subsequent moves at the company (http://tinyurl.com/dlfsmr).

It was a good 3+ year run but definitely time to move on . . . which in theory means I should have more time to dedicate to the business of writing a personal musings blog! The irony is that since I left, I've been busier than ever - a combination of enjoying the much-needed downtime with my family and talking to a ton of folks (VCs, industry headhunters, colleagues, companies, etc.) about the next potential gig. Needless to say it's been an interesting process - but I'll save that for the next post - so stay tuned!

MONETIZING ONLINE VIDEO AS AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCER -- IS IT POSSIBLE?

For a while now I've been searching far and wide for any kind of data that shows whether or not the monetization of video online, particularly by independent producers, is a sustainable and scalable business, but much to my chagrin it's been hard to come by. I guess it shouldn't be much of a surprise since the reality is that there really isn't any data out there that is compelling enough to make us all believers in this business.

Sure - there's a ton of information out there about traffic, video views, engagment, etc. - but that's all window dressing for the most part. What I want to know is pretty simple -- how is making money and how much.

I recently got some good intel from a small company (who shall remain nameless) that proclaims itself as one of the largest and most popular online video producers. In business for a little over 2 years with a total investment of about $1 million, this company recently surpassed 30 million videos served -- a great accomplishment to be sure. When asked how much revenue these 30+ million videos have generated, the answer was . . . . $500,000. This revenue has been generated through a combination of ad sales on its own site(s), rev share deals with its syndication partners and licensing deals with third parties who pay for access to this company's video library.

Doing the back-of-the-napkin math, and ignoring the licensing apsect of their business, the unofficial eCPM here is $15. And knowing how lean this company runs (including not having a fully built out internal sales force), this is a respectable accomplishment. But looking at it another way, the revenue does seem like a drop in the bucket when compared to the enormous volume of video views that have been generated. Also, the reality with this company is that the lion's share of their revenue to date is generated from the licensing side of their business, as they say that they're only now starting to generate revenue from advertising, and the CPM's on that side of the equation are "in the single digits."

So the question is -- is it possible to be wildly successful as an independent producer of online video content?

JOOST GOES WEB . . . TOO LITTLE TOO LATE

The news of Joost's move from desktop application to Flash-based web offering isn't causing all that much of a stir because, well . . . they're comin' to the party at the stroke of midnight - and we all know what happened to Sleeping Beauty!

As one of the early beta users of their desktop product, I quickly gave up using it because of the sheer number of issues I was having with it - from logging in to accessing and watching videos. And as a member of their database, I would have expected to get periodic emails keeping me updated about all the goings on there. The one saving grace is that my user name and password still work on the site -- but it's not really gonna do me much good 'cause I don't plan to visit Joost all that often going forward. Is the content really all that different than what we've been consuming from other sites (YouTube, Hulu, etc.) for over a year now? If it is, it sure wasn't obvious to me.

So my prediction is that Joost won't last through next year - or if it does it won't even come close to being profitable. If only I had $45 million to play with, I could pretty much guarantee that I'd be able to build a profitable business. Open checkbook anyone?!